


A second Chance at Innocence

by One_Brave_Princess



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Bellarke Endgame, Canon Divergence, Child Clarke Griffin, Dreams and Nightmares, Echo is respected, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Josephine Lightbourne Possessing Clarke Griffin, Post-Josephine Lightbourne Possessing Clarke Griffin, nothing happens between Bellamy and Clarke until she is an adult
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-05-13 13:04:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19251769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/One_Brave_Princess/pseuds/One_Brave_Princess
Summary: It was the hardest decision that Bellamy has ever had to make to not take revenge for Clarke's death, but that doesn't mean that he has given up on getting her back. He just didn't expect that getting her back meant he would have to take care of her as a child until they can access a better solution."The team manage to bring Clarke back but theres one problem, they did it through a time shift and now she is Clarke Griffin, but shes only 6 years old and will be for the next few weeks. Bellamy is placed as looking after her, and its the weirdest thing he's ever had to do. BP for Clarke is the most adorable attitude filled child to ever live. No romance until shes back to herself obviously just Bellamy trying to rein in little Clarke and being beyond amused." prompted by anon on Asroarke's Tumblr.





	1. Hope

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all!
> 
> I have never written fanfiction before but saw this request on Tumblr for Asroarke, who didn't feel that it was their type of writing and decided to give it a go. So if this is the anon that asked Asroarke, here you go, I hope you like it. None of this is betaed, but I did proofread it a few times, edited it quite a bit and hope there aren't many mistakes. I hope you like it, and please be kind.

Hope… he couldn’t remember the last time that he truly felt hopeful. Of course, when Jordan had woken Clarke and himself, he was hopeful that they could do Monty and Harper’s wish come true and that they would be the good guys and that they could really do better. Even then, he felt more dutiful than hopeful, but now, hope was the last thing that he could grip onto to prevent himself from completely falling as he did on the ring so many years ago. 

 

When Bellamy left Clarke on the ground during Praimfaya, he was a completely broken man and a shell of his former self. Without the head to his heart, he didn’t really know how to go on. For the first few months, he hardly ate, hardly slept, hardly spoke, and spent nearly every minute staring down at the burning Earth where almost all of the people he loved remained, either locked in a bunker far beneath the Earth or burned to death in the death wave. 

 

2199 days later, he finally got her back, and it felt like things were really starting to make sense again. No matter how difficult things were with his sister, how complicated it was navigating the dynamics of his relationship, or dedicating himself to honoring Monty and Harper by being better and taking care of their son, Jordan, Bellamy finally had his head back. The other part to him that he had been missing for so long. Having Clarke back meant that no matter what they would face, they would do it and that they would do it together. 

 

But, if Bellamy’s past has shown him anything, fate is cruel and just as soon as he got her back, Clarke was taken from him again. Paralyzed and her body ripped away from her, a cruel and sick sociopath having possessed her body and claimed to have killed her. 

 

And now, here he was, riding a stolen motorcycle through a forest he has been through a total of two times with the paralyzed body of Clarke tied and slouched against him, having tranquilized Josephine not even an hour ago. 

 

After days of planning in secret with Echo, Jordan, and Madi, and a staticky radio call from Diyoza and Octavia later, their mission was calculated and ready to be set in place. He had made the decision to not take revenge, the hardest decision he has ever had to make in his entire life- including leaving her behind during Praimfaya- but it did not mean that he wasn’t going to do everything within his power to get Clarke back. All Bellamy had to do, was get Josephine alone and away from prying eyes so he could, for lack of better terms, kidnap her and make their escape. 

 

Naturally, this task was easier said than done, and it seemed that just about everyone had made it their personal mission, without knowing, to make it even more difficult. Murphy and Emori kept coming up to him, trying to convince him, and perhaps themselves that siding with the Primes was the best option they had and the only way that they would all be able to survive and they only way to avoid yet another war. No matter how close the three had grown together over the six years they spent on the ring together, Bellamy hardly recognized the eyes that bore into his own. Emori and Murphy had become his family, and while he did still love the two of them deeply, he felt sick whenever he saw them smiling and contently lounging about. Perhaps it is a tad unfair, he thought as his eyes shift from Murphy’s to Emori’s, but still is panged with discomfort and immense disappointment. 

 

“Bellamy, we have to honor her now” Emori nearly whispered, gently placing her hand on his arm in a comforting manner. “She is gone, and just like on the ring if we don’t survive everything she has done has been in vain. Maybe, she can finally be at peace now, y’ know.” 

 

“Yeah. I guess we just have to look at it like that” Bellamy chocked out, a strong taste of acid deep in the back of his throat. 

 

Murphy opened his mouth and closed it again, much like a fish out of water, as if he was searching for something to say and Bellamy made the decision to walk away before Murphy had the chance to make him do something that he would regret and jeopardize the mission he had set in his mind. 

 

Sitting down at the bar, Bellamy ran a hand through his hair nervously. He had asked Josephine to meet with him at the bar, and she was due to be here in 15 minutes. He had made an excuse about agreeing to help them make night blood, and how to fool others into agreeing into being host bodies. 

 

On the dot, Josephine bounces up the stairs, with a cocky smirk that tells him just how much she is enjoying torturing him by controlling Clarke’s body. 

 

“So, Bell” she glanced up at him through her eyelashes flirtily, “you wanted to talk about our little plan?”

 

Swallowing thickly, he nodded and clears his throat, before glancing around the room. “Yeah. But, um, we shouldn’t do it here. There are a lot of people around who don’t know what is going on exactly. That might affect your ability to keep your little game up.” Bellamy leaned in, just to sell the lie that much more, playing the part of wanting to keep up the facade of having given up. 

 

With another smirk, Josephine reached up and grabbed a lock of Clarke’s hair, twirling it around her fingers. “You’re right. Let’s go outside.” 

 

With that, they made their way back down the stairs and to a more secluded area. Bellamy glanced around again making sure that no one could see them and that he could easily get her to the bike he had hidden earlier that day. 

 

Josephine turned to Bellamy and opened her mouth to taunt him again, no doubt, and it is then that Bellamy struck. Jabbing the tranquilizer into her neck, the look of pure cockiness and confidence drained from her eyes and became clouded with anger and confusion all at once.

 

Throwing her over his shoulder Bellamy made it the short way to the bike and made quick work of tying her paralyzed body to him before taking off like a bat out of hell. 

 

Grabbing the radio from his jacket pocket, and desperately attempting to not crash, he called to Echo. With a few quick crinkles of static, Echo picked up. 

 

“Gyon au, echo. Dula'm op nau, oso ae coming nau. (Go, Echo. Do it now! We are coming now.)

 

Echo stood with Madi and Jordan at the dome shut off, ready to flip the switch and run like hell into the forest. In one quick switch, everything was set in place. 

 

After an hour, Bellamy and Josephine were able to meet up with Octavia and Xavier deep into the forest. Echo, Madi, and Jordan had escaped to a cave that Diyoza had been leading them to keep them safe from the temporal flare that was such an essential part of their plan. 

 

“You must be Bellamy,” Xavier stated as he clasped his hands together, seemingly nervously, “and, um, Clarke. Or, Josephine, I guess.”

 

With a short nod to Xavier, Bellamy dismounted the bike and began to unstrap Clarke’s body from his. Things between him and Octavia were still on thin ice, but as of late the ice had begun to thicken and they were on their way back to being the Blake siblings that they had always been. Glancing down at Octavia’s hand, Bellamy startled and froze momentarily. 

 

“O”

 

Glancing down at her own hand, Octavia couldn’t help but smile at her brother’s concerned and distressed tone. 

 

“It’s a lot worse than it looks, big brother. Xavier thought that the fix for Clarke could work on my hand too.” 

 

Glancing away, Bellamy gave a curt nod and turned to address Xavier, who was busy examining the stitches where the Lightborn’s had cut open Clark’es neck to insert the drive. The sight made his heart ache. After seeing the video of the first time Josephine took over someone’s body, all he could think about is the pure terror Clarke had to experience in her final moments. 

 

“Thank you.” 

 

It would seem as if Xavier had tuned out to the siblings completely, perhaps wanting to give the two a moment more private, and he jumped slightly at Bellamy’s words. 

 

“What they are doing is wrong. You do not need to thank me for doing the right thing. I have been fighting against the Lightborn's for some time now, and this is my chance to prevent them from hurting someone else with Josephine.”

 

With that, Xavier turned back to Clarke’s neck and sighed. “We will need to hurry to get her to the infirmary and back in time for the flares. We need to go now.”

 

Bellamy was taken back at his mention of the infirmary, not being quite sure what the plan was other than to get Josephine out of Clarke and destroy the chip. It was desperate, and maybe a bit stupid, but he needed hope and this was the only thing that could give that to him. 

 

Grabbing a still paralyzed Josephine, Bellamy followed Xavier and Octavia a short distance to what looked like a small village similar to the one Clarke and Madi had been living in back on Earth. It looked peaceful and happy, something that Bellamy desperately wished to be able to provide for his family. Thinking back, there have been very few times that he could remember being truly at peace between wars and facing apocalypses, but he hoped that maybe one day they would all truly know peace and not have to worry about the next threat to come their way. 

 

“Set her down here. I will return with the doctor in a few moments. You will want to strap her down just in case the paralytic wears off.” Xavier instructed and quickly exited the room. 

 

Octavia turned to Bellamy and let out a sigh as she began to tighten leather straps around the arms and legs of Clare’s body. “ So... Xavier says that they have only done this one other time. It was on some guy called Gabriel.”

 

Bellamy knew that he knew the name, but it took him a minute to properly realize where he knew the name from. “He was the man who made the chip. Why are they named after the man who created the problem that they are fighting against?”  
At that moment, Xavier and another young man entered the room. “It’s a hard thing to explain. This is Marius, he will be removing the drive for us. While he works, I will try to explain.”

 

Bellamy stood, hands placed on his hips and shook his head. “No. No, I need to know what is going on, because I can’t lose her.”

 

Xavier smiled and gave a small chuckle, understanding how hard it must be to see one of the people you loved used and violated in this way. “I understand how this must look, but we do not have the time to wait. Either Marius begins working now and I explain while it happens, or it can’t happen at all. We have a very small window of time if we want to have any chance at this working.”

 

Letting out a shuttered breath, Bellamy nodded and allowed Marius to continue. He watched as the scalpel slowly and precisely was drawn over each stitch and an inky black substance began to pool as each stitch broke against the blade. It made him sick to his stomach and turned around quickly, figuring now was not the time to allow his stomach to betray him. 

 

“Gabriel was my father” Xavier began to explain. 

 

“He was in love with Josephine when the mission trip first came down to Sanctum. But, Russel, Josephine’s father, was a man of business and my father worked for him. He tried to keep his work professional and stay away from her, and he did for some time. But the eclipse happened and Russel was deeply affected. He went crazy and killed almost everyone in our camp. He slit throats and bashed peoples heads in with an ax. Gabriel was the only man to get away with this life because he was off scouting for new plants that could be useful. 

 

Once the eclipse ended, Russel was severely distraught, and my father was heartbroken after losing everyone he loved- especially Josephine. For the next 40 years, he tried to make a way to bring her back and as you saw in the video you mentioned, he finally got it too. 

 

Except, Gabriel didn’t feel right about what he was doing, and realized the mistake that he had made. But it was too late. Russel knew how to perform the necessary tasks. So he killed my father and implanted a memory drive in a new body. Once my father was able to, he ran from the palace with a small group of people who knew that it was wrong, and started trying to fight against everything that they had been doing wrong. 

 

He was getting old and knew that his time was up, so he asked to have the chip removed from him. Marius and I were young back then, only 13, but he was brilliant beyond his years and helped his father Guissepie remove the chip from my father. He has been a wonderful friend and I trust him with my life. You can trust him too.” 

 

Xavier took a minute to compose himself and continued on with a sigh. “After that, I made a promise that I would finish what my father had started and we became the Children of Gabriel, the children who were dedicated to doing the right thing and stopping the Lightborns. Like I said, I was 13, and looking back now the name is somewhat childish, but it is a way that I can stay close to my father, remember my mission, and honor his life.”

 

Bellamy nodded, and reached a hand out to claps it on Xavier’s shoulder, a silent thank you and hopefully, a small bit of comfort for the story that he just shared. 

 

The moment was interrupted when Marius let out a small cough to get their attention and indicate that he was done. Xavier turned to him and raised one of his eyebrows in a way that indicated that he wanted to know where they were standing in terms of the plan. 

 

“I removed the drive as carefully as I could. There were no complications as far as I can tell. It was almost easier than it was with Gabe all those years ago. But, you need to hurry to be able to get to the flares in time.”

 

Xavier smiled warmly at Marius and gave him a quick hug before releasing the restraints binding Clarke to the table. Bellamy hurried to the table and lifted Clark to bring her to the flares. 

 

The rest of the mission was confusing and hard for Bellamy to understand, but he had to bury his sister and Clarke in a weird quicksand-ish goo. Xavier stated that Octavia needed to be much deeper than Clarke, save for her affected hand, and that Clarke needed to be not that deep, but deep enough to not be overly affected. Bellamy had no idea what any of this actually meant, or what the depth was that needed to be achieved for either. He allowed Xavier to do most of the work but helped in any way that he could. 

 

The two men quickly made their way to the cave where Jordan, Madi, and Echo were waiting, and the five of them waited and hide from the fares.

 

As soon as she was able to make Bellamy out from the forest around him, Madi ran to him and began hounding him with questions about Clarke and where she was. 

 

“Bellamy!” she shouted, as she ran to him, trapping him with a near bone-crushing hug and looking up at him with such hope in her eyes that Bellamy wanted to cry. He made a promise to Clarke, and he would be damned if he let anything happen to Madi after he had failed to keep Clarke alive. He briefly remembers making the joke about needing a break from keeping her alive and thinks how he would give up absolutely everything to be able to get over this break and get to go back to protecting her again. 

 

“Where… where is she?” Madi asked, sudden panic spreading across her face as she realized that Bellamy had not returned with her mom. 

 

Bellamy smiled softly, his heart warmed at just how much the two of them meant to each other. Gently he placed a hand on the side of her face, as a way of grounding her and to calm her worry, “she’s with Octavia right now Madi. We just have to wait a little longer. We’ll get her back.”

 

Nodding slightly sadly, Madi gave a small smile. Echo came up to him then, and placed a soft hand on his shoulder, silently asking him how everything went and understanding that he wasn’t sure, but had hope. “She’ll be alright” Echo whispered, her eyes displaying a fierce passion he saw very rarely. It reminded him of when they were back on the ring, and she would hold him as he cried over Clarke. 

 

It was over an hour later that Octavia and Clarke made their way towards the cave. The agreed that they would wait for Bellamy and Xavier by a unique formation of trees not far from the cave, in case the flares were not able to help Clarke as planned, hoping to save Madi from having to confront the fate of her mom so quickly after being filled with hope. 

 

Bellamy wrung his hands together and licked his dried lips nervously nearly the entire walk, to the point that Xavier had to remind him that he had no reason to work himself up until they knew if their plan had failed. 

 

Bellamy sighed and nodded, understanding that his fidgeting was probably weighing on Xavier’s nerves. He was hoping for the best case scenario; that he would walk up to find his sister and Clarke both perfectly fine, but he had an awful nagging feeling that this was not what was about to unfold. 

 

And he was correct. When they arrived he saw Octavia sitting against one of the trees with her head leaned backward and eyes closed. A small smile played at her lips and she looked like the young girl he remembered from when they first landed on Earth. 

 

However, Clarke was nowhere to be seen, and his heart sank. It must not have worked, and now he would have to break Madi’s heart all over again. 

 

He felt as if he might pass out, his knees feeling weak, and his body very heavy. Until he heard a squeal of delight that utterly confused him and brought him out of his misery. 

 

“Octavia! Look what I found! Isn’t this pretty!” A small child squealed with joy, running towards Octavia with a flower held proudly in her left hand. The sound reused Octavia from her peace, and she looked up, smile still present. Laughing, she took the flower from the little girl and twirled it between her fingers. 

 

“It sure is pretty. Why don’t you go show Bellamy and Xavier?” Octavia said, a playful glint in her eyes as she turned to look at Bellamy and stood from where she had been sitting. The little girl gasped, took the flower back from Octavia and turned on her heels. 

 

“Bell’my!” she yelled happily and began sprinting towards him, throwing her arms up as a clear indicator that she was going to jump onto him. 

 

In his shocked state, he barely had time to comprehend what he was seeing and catch the small child as she hurled her body at him. Picking her up and settling her on his hip, Bellamy looked down at the amazingly similar blue eyes that stared into his. Smiling contently the girl wrapped her tiny arms around his neck and snuggled her head onto his shoulder. 

 

“Bell’my! Look at the flower I found! Isn’t it just so pretty?” she asked excitedly, clasping the stem between both of her hands in front of Bellamy’s face. 

 

“Yeah Bell, isn’t Clarke’s little flower cute?” Octavia smiled, teasing him with her eyes. Suddenly everything clicked into place for him and a confused, but nevertheless, happy smile overtook his face and a laugh erupted from his throat. 

 

“Yeah, it is pretty Clarke.”

 

With that Bellamy set Clarke back on the ground, telling her that she was allowed to run around for a bit longer while he talked with Octavia and Xavier about some grown-up stuff, as long as she promised not to stray too far and stayed in his line of sight. 

 

“Okay! I’m going to find some more flowers!” Clarke proclaimed happily and sprinted a short distance down the path. 

 

Turning, Bellamy looked between Xavier and Octavia with a look of confusion evident. “Care to explain?”

 

Chuckling, Xavier smiled and looked towards Octavia with a raised eyebrow. “You didn’t explain what we were doing exactly did you?”

 

Smiling, Octavia shook her head slightly and began to explain. “There was no way in hell my brother would believe the flare would rewind time for Clarke and fix the situation, and even if he did, he wouldn’t have risked it if I told him that this theory was untested and you have only heard of it in a story from your father.”

 

Bellamy started to argue, before promptly shutting his mouth and sighing, “you’re right, O, I would have never agreed to this if I knew it was a guess from a story. This is playing with life and death. But, thank you. We got her back.”

 

Xavier continued to smile and nodded towards Bellamy’s gratitude. “Since you were clearly left out of the loop, I feel you may need some enlightenment on where we go from here. As you’ve seen, the temporal flares have restored Clarke and de-aged her.

 

According to my father, the two other times that this has been done, the child maintains full memories from their adult life, but it is more or less trapped away in their conscious. It is the same way that the Primes wipe the mind to implant the drives. With the drives, the separate the host’s mind into a different file, so to speak, and there is a code on the drive to delete all files outside of the prime’s. Clarke must have been extremely strong and creative since she was able to keep her mind from being erased.”

 

“That being said”, Xavier paused and licked his lips, dreading what he would have to say next. “ She is a child in every sense of the word, and from will have to deal with all of the memories ass the begin to file out of the file one by one. From what I have learned from Octavia, this may be something quite difficult for her to process and deal with in her mental state.”

 

Bellamy nodded, thinking deeply of all of the horrendous things that Clarke was forced to do, the lives she was forced to take, and the decisions she was forced to make. He knew how difficult it all was for her to bare, how heavily it weighed on her all the time. He could only imagine that weight on a child. 

 

“It would slowly come to her conscious mind in the form of dreams. The two others had horrendous nightmares and it took them years to be able to accept all that had happened. Luckily, as I have seen from Octavia’s hand, we have a few options here. We could, you know, leave her as a child and let her grow up. Or we could wait for the next temporal flare and have it age her back to her actual age.”

 

Bellamy bit down on his lip and ran a hand through his hair shakily, weighing both options. He knew that allowing her to have another chance, a chance at an actual childhood, was something that would require her to suffer what no child should ever have to and deal with very heavy adult traumas. It made him think of Charlotte and all that she had gone through. He didn’t want that for Clarke. He also knew that it would leave Madi without her mom and Clarke would be more vulnerable. 

 

“When is the next flare?”

 

“We don’t know. It could be a week or a month, or more. We will have to monitor the weather conditions to know. Marius’s brother had been measuring for this one for the last week and a half. We will have to wait and see.” 

 

At that moment, Clarke came running back over, with a dozen or so flowers in her hands and the biggest smile on her face. “Okay,” Bellamy said, his eyes following Clarke as she bound about and showed off the flowers to Octavia happily. “We will wait for the next flare, and get our Clarke back fully.”


	2. Screw You, I'm Not Afraid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bellamy and Echo have an important talk that changes where they stand. The Blake siblings work on their relationship. Bellamy is there for Clarke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the kind words on the first chapter, and I am happy that you guys seem to like this. It is a blast to write and I can't wait to continue writing it. 
> 
> That being said, this chapter is a bit shorter than the first and the next few probably will be too. I broke my wrist a few hours after I posted the first chapter and it is making typing a pain in the ass. Please be patient. 
> 
> Once again, this is not betaed, so please let me know if there are any errors that I need to fix.

The four began making their way back to the cave, as the sun began to set. Bellamy did not want to lose Clarke in the darkness and insisted on carrying her, much to the child’s dismay. 

“But Bell’my! I want to explore and pick flowers on the way” she complained, sticking her bottom lips out pouting slightly and squirming in his arms. 

“Yeah, I know you do kiddo. But it is getting dark and I don’t want you getting scared or lost. It is hard for my old man knees to keep up with you and how fast you run.” Bellamy tried to explain with a smile, hoping that the subtle compliment would distract her enough to get her to agree to be carried (Not that it mattered much because Bellamy would be damned if he ever let him out of his sight again). However, he was in no such luck; Clarke didn’t seem to like his reasoning and crossed her arms across her chest with a huff. 

“I will NOT get scared,” she said defiantly but ultimately seemed to have accepted that she was not going to get to run there. 

“Well, since you are so brave then, do you want to do a special job for us Clarke?” Bellamy asked, as a way to compromise, hoping that he can keep Clarke happy before she has to sleep and deal with the dreams that Xavier mentioned. 

Suddenly, Clarke’s eyes light up and she quickly nodded her head. Bellamy smiled and lifted her to sit on his shoulders. “Okay, you need to be our lookout. You’ll be taller this way and will be able to tell us when there are any dangers. This is a very important job, can you do it for us, Clarke?” 

“Yeah! I can do it!” Clarke said determinedly, a look of pure concentration settling on her face. The rest of the short march back to the cave went off without a hitch, but due to the darkness of the night, they decided that it would be best to stay the night in the cave and make their way to the village in the morning. 

Just as before, Madi was waiting at the mouth of the cave, pacing back and forth with nerves, and as soon as she could determine who was approaching she sprinted out to them. 

From her vantage point, Clarke was the first to see Madi and began squealing excitedly. “Madi! Bell’my, it’s Madi!” Bellamy chuckled and took her down from his shoulders to set her on the ground, knowing that she would be wiggling around and therefore at risk of falling off his shoulders anyway and that she was probably as excited to see Madi as Madi was nervous to see her. 

As soon as Clarke’s feet hit the ground, the girl began sprinting towards Madi happily chanting her name ‘Madi! Madi!’ throwing her arms up much as she had earlier. Bellamy as close enough behind her that he could see the look of pure confusion but happiness pass over Madi’s face. 

Madi picked Clarke up and settled her on her hip before walking to Bellamy with a questioning look. “Let’s get into the cave and I will explain everything, olay Madi?” he said with a soft smile, watching as Clarke played with the flowers in her hands and smiled with pure joy being near Madi. 

Once they were all in the cave and Xavier has started a small fire to keep them warm throughout the night and distributed the rations he had stored away earlier, it was time to explain things and get ready for the next morning's events. 

After Xavier and Bellamy explain the situation to Madi, Jordan, and Echo, Madi’s look of confusion is replaced with something that Bellamy can’t entirely place. She is looking down at Clarke who is sitting in her lap playing with the flowers she had picked earlier. 

“So…” Madi looked up with a large and playful smile on her face, “I kind of get to have a baby sister for a while? For a while back in the valley, I begged Clarke for a little sibling before I realized that we were missing a very important part of that equation.”

No one could keep the smile off of there faces at that, except for Clarke who did not take kindly to being called a baby. “I’m not a baby, I’m four years old!” she said proudly holding up four of her little fingers for Madi to see, and promptly earning a laugh from everyone. 

After the laughter had died down, a large yawn escaped from Clarke and Bellamy, Octavia, and Xavier all shared nervous glances knowing what they would all soon witness. “Well, we should probably get some sleep for tomorrow” Echo suggested clapping her hands together. 

Suddenly Clarke’s eyes widened and a look of panic replaced the one of childhood joy that she had been wearing all afternoon. “NO! We can’t go to sleep!” Clarke said, quickly looking around for an excuse. She sprung up from Madi’s lap and collect all of the flowers she had picked earlier and held them up for Echo to see. 

“I have to give everyone a flower! I can’t go to sleep yet!” She was nearly shaking and looked as if she were about to cry. 

“Okay. It’s okay Clarke, here why don’t you give everyone a flower?” Echo said, somewhat nervously. She had never been one to interact with small children and wasn’t sure how to navigate this. She reached out her hand slowly for Clarke to take and began leading her around to each person to give a flower to, hoping that once the small task was done, Clarke would happily quiet down and sleep. That’s what adult Clarke would have done, Echo reasoned in her head. Finish the task and everything will be okay. 

Once Clarke had given a flower to everyone besides Bellamy, Clarke had begun shaking again and her lip quivered as tears threatened to fall. Giving Echo a thankful smile, Bellamy pulled Clarke into his arms and lifted her off the ground and gently rubbed her back up in down in a soothing motion. 

“Don’t worry Clarke, it’s going to be okay,” he whispered and he began walking the length of the cave and back, gently rocking her. Clarke had taken to hiding her face into the crook of his neck and whimpering softly against him. From the small amount of wetness that he could feel gathering on his shoulder, he gathered that the tears had finally broken and were streaming down her face. 

It broke his heart, and briefly, the thought crossed his mind of the same terrifying tears streaming down her face as Russel injected her with Josephine’s drive. Shaking his head softly, he pushed the thought away, knowing that he couldn’t risk thinking that way when he needed to be strong and reliable for the child in his arms. 

After a few hours of gentle rocking, pacing, and rubbing her back, Clarke had finally fallen to sleep against Bellamy’s chest and was softly snoring as he rejoined the few people who were still awake by the fire. Glancing around, he noted that Madi and Jordan were fast asleep, and he figured that now would be as good of a time as any to discuss what they were going to do tomorrow morning in great detail. 

“Hey,” he started, “she’s asleep now. We should talk about the plan for tomorrow.” Gently he placed her down on one of the unoccupied blankets, and wrapped it around her tightly, hoping that the swaddling effect would help her feel safe and maybe get a decent sleep. Stirring slightly as she was placed down, Bellamy froze above her, hands hovering just slightly above her sleeping form. He was afraid if he breathed too hard, that she would wake up, and it would take another hour to settle her down again. Luckily, it seems that Clarke has just shifted and not actually woken up. 

“Octavia and I, we need to keep up the charade that we are fighting against the Children of Gabriel. I think it is best if we put some distance between Clarke and us. We don’t know how they are going to react once they figure out that you kidnapped and killed their daughter Bellamy” Diyoza stated as soon as he settled around the fire with them. 

Knitting his eyebrows together in concern, Bellamy reluctantly nodded to the plan, fearing for the life of his sister and Diyoza’s child. He knew that this was as good as a declaration of war, and the Prime’s were dangerous. 

“They’re right. We need to go on as if nothing has changed for a few days. As soon as the Lightborne’s figure out that you took her, they will be sending out search parties to get her back,” Xavier stated, running a nervous hand over his short hair and paused with a sigh. “They won’t care that she is a child now. They know she has host blood, and they will take her and they will use her regardless of her age just to send a message. If we keep up the image of Octavia and Diyoza having me prisoner, they won’t expect it when we attack.”

Glancing over his shoulder worriedly, Bellamy’s eyes were frozen on Clarke’s small body. It was hard enough having to leave her during Praimfaya, having lost her then, but she had come back, and he knew he was pushing his luck getting her back this time. He wasn’t sure he could handle losing her again, and he knew that he probably wouldn’t get her back if he ever lost her again. 

“I don’t like it, it’s incredibly dangerous-” Bellamy began, never taking his eyes away from Clarke. Octavia immediately jumped at the chance to defend the plan and remind him that she was a fighter and would not be told what to do by anyone. Sighing, Bellamy raised his hand to stop her protests, “ but I know that this is how it has to go down. We can’t lose her again, and I know that you won’t let that happen. You are one of the strongest people I know, O. I trust you, and I need you for the warrior that you have become.”

A silence fell over the room as the two Blake siblings looked at each other intently. Octavia’s face gave away no signal of emotion, but Bellamy could see something far off in her eyes and knew that a small piece of their relationship had been mended. 

“Good. We will radio when we are ready to attack, that way you can get Clarke out of the village and hide with her. Keep her safe and away from the war.” Diyoza stated firmly and with a sharp nod, waddled away to go to bed. 

The others quickly followed her example and retired to get at least some rest before dawn, except for Echo who sat beside Bellamy and gently placed a hand on his shoulder. 

“You’re good with her.” It wasn’t a question, or a compliment, but a firm fact that she had placed into the air around them with a bit of sadness or regret stinging against his ears. “I’m not.”

Bellamy shifted slightly, to look at Echo fully, and once he did his face fell. “I’ve had practice. It was hard for me when O was little, y’ know. You’re doing fine, Echo.”  
With a soft smile and a chuckle, Echo nodded. “Maybe I am, but Bellamy…” she sighed then but her smile remained present, “ this isn’t who I am. I don’t want to be a mom. I never have, and I never will. I don’t understand children. They’re completely unreasonable, messy, and loud. I like hanging out with kids like Madi, little warriors, who I can hold a conversation with, and kids are fine as long as I can return them to their parents when I have had enough.”

Bellamy’s eyes filled with a pang of deep sadness, knowing where the conversation was headed. He loved Echo, he had needed her and they were good together. They shouldn’t have worked, and yet they fit together in the weirdest and best ways. 

“Bellamy, that is who you are though. The father figure to a camp of 100 delinquent children, the mother hen of our friends, and seeing you interact with her-” Echo stopped, having become slightly choked up. “I could never ask you to change, just like I know you would never ask me to. I can’t be that for you, and you can’t not be that for me.”

Tears sprung in both of their eyes, and Bellamy opened his mouth, her name slipping off his tongue in a broken and strangled whisper. Holding up her hand, Echo let out a tearful chuckle and used her other hand to grab his hand and gently brought it to her mouth. Leaving a sweet kiss on his knuckles, she continued. “I know what we had was real, but Bell, our time is up now. I love you, and I know you love me, but we won’t be happy when we both want such different things. I will forever be grateful for the last three years that you have made so wonderful for us, but, now it is time for us to be friends again, and nothing more.”

As a few tears slipped down his face, Bellamy nodded, knowing deep down that everything she had just said had been an ugly naked truth. He couldn’t change himself and make it so he didn’t want a family any more than she could magically change and want one. They wouldn’t end up happy, and they wouldn’t end up as friends if they let it continue and sacrificed one’s happiness over this. “Thank you, Echo. You mean so much to me, and while this hurts like hell, I know your right. So, yeah, friends from now on, I guess.” 

Sharing a final sad smile, the two embraced in a tearful hug, knowing the chapter of their lives where they were together has closed, and a new one of friendship was just beginning to be written. Not long after that, the two of them finally retired for the night. 

It was the first time since finding out about Clarke’s attempted murder that Bellamy had fallen asleep somewhat peacefully. It was nice, while it lasted, that is. It couldn’t have been more than a few hours since he had lied down, judging by the soft blue that marked the start of a new day he saw from the mouth of the cave when he was awoken from his slumber with a cry of pure terror. 

It took him a few seconds to fully realize what he was hearing and who it was from, but as soon as he did, he jumped from his blanket and quickly scooped Clarke into his arms. 

She was still asleep, but her brows were knitted tightly together, her lips quivered, and her small fists were balled together so tightly they were a ghostly white. She entire body was quaking and her cries were becoming more and more desperate. 

“No, no, I didn’t want to do it.” She sobbed quietly, thrashing her body against Bellamy’s. Bellamy’s arms tighten around her, effectively pinning her arms against her and his chest and preventing her from accidentally hurting herself in her sleep. Maybe it would be comforting, like a swaddle, he hoped. Not that the swaddle her used earlier seemed to work particularly well. 

“Clarke.” he said firmly, hoping he could break her from her nightmare with his voice. “Come on Clarke, it’s okay. Just wake up now.” he tried to sooth, hoping that a gentle coaxing would be enough to wake her, hoping that he could end her suffering in a soft way and ease it away from her rather than forcing her away and traumatizing her more. When Octavia was young, it always ended better when he was able to ease her out of a bad dream than it did when he had to violently shake her awake. 

However, it seemed her dreams were far too attached and deeply seeded within her mind, after all, they weren’t really dreams but dark twisted memories of a child who was forced to enter the cold cruel adult world far too young and make impossible decisions with the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Sighing, Bellamy did the last thing he wanted to and jabbed her should back firmly, not with enough pressure to hurt her but enough to startle her from her night terror. With a terrified gasp, Clarke’s eyes shot open and a piercing cry left her lips as she dissolved into tears. 

“I’m so sorry!” Clarke wailed and buried her head into Bellamy’s chest. “I’m sorry!”

Using one hand to cradle her head against him, and the other to support her small body, he stood up and decided that he would take her on a walk to help calm her down, and hopefully allow the others to get a bit more rest. Softly he whispered comforting nothings against her head and gently rocked her body as he walked. 

After walking for about ten minutes, she wailing had died down, and now only soft whimpers escaped her lips as the tears fell from her face. He paused in walking for a brief moment and gently pulled her body from his so that he could look at her. While it is true that she had calmed down incredibly, the evidence of her panic was glaringly obvious from her pink and tear stained cheeks and puffy eyes, to the look of absolute terror in her eyes. It broke Bellamy’s heart. As soon as he had moved to do so, the panic in her eyes magnified and she clutched his shirt so tightly that her knuckles were as painfully white as they had been during her night terror. 

“It’s okay Clarke, I’m not going anywhere, I’m right here. Shh, shh” he tried to sooth and used the hand that had been cradling her head to gently wipe away the tears. “You’re safe, Clarke. I won’t let anything happen to you. Just breath. That’s my girl, breathe, in and out, nice and slow.”

After another 20 minutes of gentle coaxing, Bellamy had managed to calm Clarke down enough that her breathing and speech had mostly normalized. He let out a relieved sigh as he sat down against a tree and propped her up against his bent knees. Clarke immediately reached out for his hands and held onto them as if it were her only lifeline and would protect her from what she had experienced. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked gently, running one of his thumbs over her small hand soothingly. “Sometimes, when you have bad dreams like that, you have to face them when you’re awake. Y’know?” he asked gently, and when she nervously shook her head Bellamy gave her a soft smile. 

“Fears are fears. Slay your demons when you’re awake, they won’t be there to get you in your sleep. Okay? So when you get scared, all you have to do is say ‘screw you, I am not afraid.’ Okay? Just like you told me yesterday on our walk. I am not afraid.” 

Clarke bit her lip gently, and a small shy smile appeared on her lips. “Mommy says that I shouldn’t say mean things like that. It will make people feel sad and I don’t want people to feel sad.” Clarke said rubbing the last of her tears away. 

Bellamy let out a small chuckle and smiled at the small child, remembering the uptight girl that fell from the sky, seemingly just to annoy him, and felt the need to prove that she could be loads of fun to everyone when they told her she was too serious. 

“Your mom sounds like a smart lady,” he chuckled again, “but it's okay to make someone sad when they are hurting you. Just say to them that you aren’t afraid, okay?”

“I’m not afraid” she all but whispered.

“Just like that Clarke.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know where you think the story is going, or if there is anything that I need to address or include. 
> 
> come say hi to me on my Tumblr at OneBravePrincess


	3. She's Alive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke is fascinated with Diyoza's stomach and wants to teach Bellamy about what it means when someone has a baby. Echo tells the rest of the family about their plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the shorter update, but I figured it would be better to get a shorter update than no update at all. Enjoy!

By the time the two had returned to the cave, Diyoza, Octavia, and Xavier were already getting ready to set off, while Madi and Jordan were sitting around and eating from their rations. This was not something that Bellamy was surprised to see, but the fact that Diyoza approached him with outstretched arms to take Clarke did. 

“I’ll look after this one. You need to talk with your sister and Xavier about the rest of the plan. I’m already caught up, and I could use some practice.” With that, Diyoza took Clarke into her arms, settled her on her hip, and retreated over to Madi and Jordan where she began to feed Clarke some berries and granola. 

Bellamy was left with no other choice, and shaking the brief confusion from his head turned towards his sister and Xavier and began the conversation they seemed itching to have. He noticed Echo leaning against the wall a short way behind Octavia and Xavier, arms crossed over her chest. She was clearly trying to stay calm and act as if there was not something eating away at her, but it was clear to him that there was something making her skin crawl with anticipation. He didn’t have long to ponder what was going through her mind as Octavia began speaking as soon as she could tell that his attention had been drawn in her direction. 

“Bell. So, we’re about to head out. If we stay here much longer, we risk looking suspicious and drawing the Primes attention. We will signal you when we get past the shield. You need to get Clarke to Marius as soon as you can once you get the signal. He will tell you what to do from there.” 

Octavia had the steady look of a warrior, confident and calculated in a way that struck fear in the bones of those she would go against. Pride swelled in his chest, thinking of the little girl under the floor who had turned into a fierce and powerful young woman. 

“Once we get past the shield, a war will rage itself. I can tell you that much. Marius will keep you safe while we take the palace. Until then, lay low. Don’t draw too much attention, and just fit in with the community here. They don’t know who Clarke is, but they would sacrifice themselves to protect her for our cause without another thought.” Xavier stopped then, a smile spread across his face and a look of pride flaring in his eyes. 

“Most of them are young, and frankly, they are stupid. They find out about our mission too soon and they risk our chances at ending this with as little violence and bloodshed as we can. I don’t want that, and I don’t think you do either.” 

Shaking his head, Bellamy’s lips were pulled into a tight line. He would have to hide Clarke and Madi. It was the only way to really keep them safe, just as hiding Octavia had. He wanted to be the good guys this time around, we wanted to prevent suffering where he could and this is how he could do that. 

At that point, Echo pushed herself from the wall and made her way over to the three of them. “I’m going to head out and join up with the scavenging party. I will follow them through the shield and tell our people about what is going on.” The look on her face told them all that there would be no arguing. 

“I get that Murphy’s being a dick, but I think that he is only being the cockroach that he is. He wants to survive and thinks this is the only way that he can. He will come around. I just don’t want him getting any ideas about being a hero. It’s better, easier if they all know what is happening. They will be prepared. It’s safer this way. Plus Gaia is probably freaking out that she can’t find Madi right about now.”

Bellamy’s lips returned to the tight line that they had been before. He knew that she was right, this would keep their family as safe as possible with the fast approaching war, but he felt wrong about letting her go out there when she could easily stay here with him to protect Madi, Jordan, and Clarke, all while staying safe. He also knew that that was not within who she was. Much like Octavia, she was a warrior through and through and would not let anyone hold her back from what she felt was her fight. 

“You keep them safe, Echo,” Bellamy said, one hand grasping her shoulder firmly, urging her to understand how much he wanted to ask her to stay but realized that he couldn’t. “And you come back to us in one piece. Okay?”

The two nodded at each other, understanding the weight of the moment and what it meant for each of them. It confirmed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they had been right to end their romantic endeavors and continue on as friends. 

While they were talking, Clarke had settled between Diyoza and Madi and was comfortably munching on her rations and staring at Diyoza quizzically. 

“Why is your tummy so big? Do you have a baby in there?” Clarke asked, gently tugging on the hem of her shirt, which was gently stretched over Diyoza’s quickly expanding stomach. 

Chuckling, Diyoza guided Clarke's small hand over the spot that her daughter was forcefully kicking, and watched as the young girls face filled with innocent curiosity and wonder; a face-splitting smile stretching across her cheeks. 

“I do. A little girl like you.”

“I’ve never seen a lady with a baby before. Back before, before I was big like you, my mommy used to help ladies with babies when the council let them have one. She told me that when I was older that I would get to help too. But they made me go away before I could.” Clarke explained, her hand gently rubbing the spot the baby had kicked, hoping to stir up another reaction. 

“When is she going to come out?” Clarke asked excitedly, moving her hand to follow the movements of the baby. 

“When she is ready. Soon” Diyoza smiled, running her hand over Clarke’s absent-mindedly. Clarke’s smile seemed to expand at that, but as she looked up at Diyoza it was clear that Clarke had an intense thought raging in her brain.

“How do you know what to do? When she wants to come out, how do you get her out of there?” Clarke’s eyes turned, suddenly, very seriously, and bore into Diyoza expectantly. 

“Well, that’s hard to say exactly. I don’t know what to do, I have never done this before, but my body will know what to do when it needs to.” Diyoza struggled momentarily trying to come up with an answer that a four-year-old would understand and accept without revealing too much. 

“Can I help? Y’ know, when she wants to come out?” 

Bellamy took that moment to save Diyoza from the awkward situation and clapped both of his hands together, which seemed to break Clarke’s attention from her. “Okay. How about you finish up your breakfast and get ready to head to the village Clarke?”

At that, Clarke’s eyes lit up again and she bounced over to Bellamy, grabbing one of his hands and pulling him towards Diyoza. 

“Look, Bellamy, Doza has a baby in her tummy. That’s why it is so big.” Clarke said happily, as she led his hand onto Diyoza’s stomach hoping that he would be able to feel the baby kick. 

Glancing at Diyoza apologetically, he allowed Clarke to push his hand against the woman’s stomach. 

“Did you know that that means that she had sex?” Clarke asked with a wide smile directed at Bellamy, completely oblivious to the awkwardness that she had just caused. Everyone in the room fell dead silent at that, many biting their lips between their teeth to stifle the giggles that threatened to spill over. 

It was Madi who broke first, erupting into laughter that caused her to double over and grasp her sides from the pain of laughing so hard. Not long after, Jordan joined her on the floor of the cave, having fallen in a similar manner. 

“Man, you thought I was bad when I was her age. You’re gonna have your hands full it looks like.” Octavia smiled with a chuckle as she grabbed Diyoza’s hand and pulled her up. Bellamy had quickly pulled his hand away and was now staring at the floor with his hand scratching the back of his neck. 

“Yeah. I can see that” was all Bellamy could respond. “Anyway, we need to get going, and so do you guys… so… Clarke, Madi, Jordan.” He let his sentence drop off after that and grabbed Clarke’s hand as they headed out of the cave and towards the village. 

He glanced back at the group that was splitting off, and let out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding. This felt like the start of a very long day of worrying. But he had hope. 

It wasn’t hard for Echo to catch up with the morning scouting party and slip back behind the shield without drawing attention to herself. With her experience as a spy, concealing was second nature to her, and as far as she could tell, no one was suspicious of her. However, when she spotted Russel across the field, she could tell that he had discovered that Josephine was missing, or at least not within the shield. 

Luckily, he didn’t seem to notice her or at least didn’t seem to care if he did, which gave her the perfect opportunity to sneak off to the tavern and talk with the rest of Spacekru. 

Raven, Murphy, Emori, Jackson, Miller, and Abby were all sitting around the table in the middle of the room, while Gaia was pacing back and forth a small distance in front of the table with a worried expression etched across her features. 

As soon as she saw Echo, Gaia raced up to her and began firing off questions rapidly. 

“Have you seen Heda? I couldn’t find her last night for training and figured she was with Bellamy, but then I couldn’t find either of them this morning and I am starting to think that the Primes may have taken her. Please. Tell me that you know where she is?”

Keeping her features as neutral as possible, Echo motioned for Gaia to take a seat at the table with the rest of their people. “Heda is okay, but we all need to have a family meeting.”

While Gaia was noticeably eased by her words, the rest of them seemed to tense up and glance around the room expectantly. “Where are Bellamy and Clarke?” Abby asked first, noticing their absence. “Shouldn’t we wait for them?”

At that, Raven scoffed and shook her head, clearly not fond of either of the Griffin women at the moment, and quite unhappy that the younger was being missed and that the older felt as if she had the right to question anyone. 

A cold glance from Echo quickly quieted Raven, and at that, she took her seat and began to explain everything that had happened the previous day in hushed tones. 

“Yesterday, Bellamy, Jordan, Madi and I, we, figured something out about our little problem. That’s where Heda is, with Bellamy and Jordan. She is safe.”

If Echo thought that Gaia had relaxed at her earlier words, she could physically tell that she was no longer concerned for the safety of Madi, as she slumped back against her hair in a much more relaxed posture than the rigid and spring loaded one she had been seconds before. 

“Clarke is still alive” Echo paused, allowing the words to sink in for all of them. 

At that, Raven and Abby’s heads snapped up, “what do you mean ‘still alive’” both asked in tandem. It didn’t occur to her that neither of the women knew of the ‘problem that she was talking about.

“Russel kidnapped Clarke, stuck a needle in her neck to kill her, and shoved his daughter into her body with a thing like the flame” Murphy interrupted with little emotion in his voice, almost as if he didn’t care. He was playing it off as if it didn’t matter that they had lost Clarke, and to anyone who wasn’t trained in reading people or didn’t know Murphy for over six years, they might assume that it really didn’t matter to him. “Go on” he instructed as he leaned back in his chair and sighed. 

“My daughter is dead” Abby stated numbly, before bursting into sobs. Raven had been shocked into silence, the look of contempt held for Clarke forgotten and an unreadable look took its place. “She’s dead” came out as nothing more than a whisper. 

Jackson came to Abby’s side, and placed his arms around her shoulders comfortingly, hoping to calm her enough for her to process the next bit of information that Echo was going to share. After all, she had just stated that Clarke was alive. 

“Well, we thought she was. But Bellamy figured out that she wasn’t, and that she was just trapped in her head like you and Raven were with ALIE’s chip. I thought he was crazy when he told me. He said that she had tapped morse code to him. I thought he was just grieving.” Miller explained as he joined Jackson at Abby’s side, one of his large hands firmly clasping her shoulder. 

“For the last few weeks, every time we have been around “Clarke” we were with Josephine pretending to be Clarke. Two days ago Ocatvia radioed Bellamy and told him about some anomaly thing that could heal people. He told her about Clarke’s situation and we agreed to kidnap Josephine and get Clarke back.” Echo watched closely as her friends faces shifted, from horror to excitement, or horror to relief. 

“I didn’t even notice that she wasn’t my daughter. She was writing with her right hand and talking weird, and I didn’t even care. I didn’t know my own daughter was dead!” Abby wailed, succumbing to her tears again, before standing up and pulling Echo into an extremely awkward embrace.

“Thank you for saving her!” she sobbed, and Echo merely nodded with a tight-lipped smile as she awkwardly patted her back. “Of course.”

“Why do I feel like there is more to tell?” Murphy huffed, his arms crossed in front of his chest, all while Emori sent him a warning look at his tone. “John. The woman just figured out that her daughter had nearly been murdered, give her a moment.”

“He’s right, there is more. We had someone remove the mind drive from Clarke and the anomaly saved her life. She is herself again and Josephine has been destroyed. Which means that as soon as the Prime’s find out, we’re going to be caught in the middle of a war again. Octavia, Diyoza and a man named Xavier are on their way here now, working with the Children of Gabriel, to take the Prime’s down. We need to lay low, and not do anything stupid until they get here. Bellamy has Madi, Jordan, and Clarke to keep them safe while this happens.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will be going into pretty big surgery next week, so I am going to try to get a chapter or two written and edited in the meantime so that I can still update despite that. They will probably be shorter, much like this update, but they will at least be an update to read.


	4. It's Time to Face  What You've been Hiding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Echo breaks the news to everyone. Bellamy and Jordan have a heart to heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know you guys want more scenes with baby Clarke, and I love to write them. Unfortunately, this chapter is not one that has Clarke in it very heavily. However, the next two or three chapters will basically be only baby Clarke scenes, so you have that to look forward to.

The weight of the situation was evident in the air as everyone sat around attempting to process everything that Echo had told them. It was a lot to process, and for some, it was proving to be too much. 

Raven was outraged as soon as Echo had said that Bellamy would be keeping Clarke safe and away from the war, still upset over the sting of her friend turning her over to be tortured. The look of hatred was evident on her face, although she did remain quiet while the others asked questions and absorbed the answers. Her anger sat brewing within her. 

Abby was angry at herself, and frankly, the world. She had been so preoccupied with saving Kane that she hadn’t even taken noticed her daughter being another person. She realized Clarke had been acting strangely but wrote it off as stress and grief over losing two of her friends. She blamed herself, had she been a better mother, more attentive and loving, maybe Clarke wouldn’t have had to go through being possessed by a sociopath and have her body used in that way. 

“You said she is out of the shield, with Bellamy and Madi, but is she safe? Isn’t it dangerous out there?” Abby managed to choke out, looking to Echo with pleading eyes, the terror and worry clearly evident. 

“The Children of Gabriel will keep them all safe.” It was as good of an answer as she could give, knowing that Abby’s concerns were well-founded. “Besides, it’s going to be just as dangerous here when we go against the Primes. It’s better this way.”

“I want to call her, to hear her voice. Please, Echo. I need to know she is okay.” Abby locked eyes with her, tears slipping over her lashes and her voice raw with emotion.

Echo lowered her head and shook it gently, not being able to quite reach Abby’s pleading eyes. “I can’t let you do that. We have to keep the coms clear in case we get the signal that the shield has been breached. You just have to trust me for now. Besides, we could be monitored and calling them would put them at danger.”

Tearfully, Abby had no choice but to drop it. She would not allow herself to put her daughter in danger again. 

Jackson was worried about how Clarke was doing as well, and while he knew that he would have to go off of Echo’s word, he still had a million questions as to how the anomaly had fixed their Josephine problem. 

“She’s okay, that’s what you said, right? So she is completely fine now? What happened to Josephine? Was the drive destroyed? Did she say anything? What does she remember?” His eyes were wide with wonder and curiosity as he rambled off questions to Echo, only stopping when Miller gave him a pointed look that let him know that there would be plenty of time for his questions once they managed to survive the approaching war. 

Nodding towards Miller in thanks, Echo cleared her throat, “I’m sure Clarke can answer all of your questions when Bellamy brings her back, Jackson. We need to talk strategy right now, though. I have no idea when they are going to attack, so we need to be ready to go as soon as we get the call.”

At that Raven was unable to hold her tongue any longer and scoffed. “Of course, Clarke won’t be here. No. She’s hiding away to be safe and not have to make any more impossible choices. At least now we won’t have to worry about her gambling with our lives. If she was here, she would let us die and take off with her kid. She’s a coward!” 

Raven’s words were sharp and dripped with a venom that would seem to indicate that she was upset solely over what had happened shortly before they had to escape the Earth for a final time. But the rawness and lost look in her eyes told a very different story. Echo could tell that she was collapsing in on herself with the guilt of having told Clarke off shortly before she was whisked away and murdered for her body. Raven was one of her oldest (still living) friends, and while it is true that she was mad, she felt guilty that she had rejected her friend and almost lost the ability to rekindle their friendship. 

But before Echo had taken to defending Clarke and everything that had happened, reminding Raven that the only reason that she was alive is due to Clarke’s impossible choices and the love of her friends and family, Emori snapped. 

“No, if she was here she would fight for us. I get that you’re angry Rae, but come on! The only reason you’re alive is because of Clarke! She sacrificed her life for us! She gave me her hazmat suit when she didn’t know if she would live or not, she took the nightblood and offered to crawl inside an oven that she thought could torture her with a slow and agonizing death so that I wouldn’t have to, and she stayed during Praimfaya so that we could live! The only coward I see here is you. Face your goddamn emotions and get off your high horse. You’re mad that she nearly died and the last thing you did was tell her she is a monster.”

It was so quiet, a pin could be heard hitting the floor as the two women stared each other down. Emori was radiating anger and if looks could kill, Raven Reyes would be six feet under. As if Emori’s words had struck a chord deep within Raven, her mouth snapped shut and a look of hurt crossed her face. It was hard for Raven to see how her friends could forgive Clarke so easily after what she had done back in the Valley. 

With a sigh, Murphy broke the tension. “Emori’s right. We owe this to Clarke, Raven. You don’t have to like it, hell, I’m not the biggest fan of Clarke right now either, but she has done a lot for us. Besides, this is the right thing to do. The Primes are dangerous and what they are doing is wrong.” 

Murphy refused to make eye contact with anyone, guilt dripping from him, and he cleared his throat once more before continuing with his speech. “I helped them. When I thought Clarke was dead, I thought that helping them would keep me alive and from going to hell. I thought I could save us. Don’t make the same mistake I did.”

Shaking her head, Raven took in a deep breath and spoke through gritted teeth at the group once more. “Whatever. What do we need to do?” Her friends words stuck to her in a suffocating manner, and she knew that there was a lot of truth behind what they were saying. She knew, deep down that Clarke was not a bad person, that she had saved their asses on numerous occasions and was only trying to protect her family and not to hurt them in the Valley, but it didn’t seem to help take the sting of her betrayal away. Nor did it take away the sting of her guilt. She was given the opportunity to sit down and talk with Clarke and get over all the shit that had gone down, but she had chosen to belittle and hurt Clarke instead. 

Back in the village, Bellamy leaned against an old shed not far from a small playground where he could keep an eye on Clarke while allowing her to play and burn off some energy. He knew that she couldn’t have gotten much sleep, or at least decent sleep, and that he would have to put her down for a nap at some point, and he hoped that if she was tired enough the dreams wouldn’t be so bad. At the very least, she would have fun while awake if she was going to be plagued with terror when she slept. 

Jordan was standing by him, talking aimlessly, and watching Madi and Clarke play with a smile. “She’s happy.” He said and the playful glint in his eyes- so much like his father’s- seemed to shine a bit brighter as he glanced at Bellamy. 

“Yeah. She deserves to be after all she’s gone through.” Bellamy managed to choke out. 

“Mom would have loved this. She always wanted a little girl I think. Don’t get me wrong, she loved me. But the way she talked about Clarke with Madi, I could tell.” Bellamy smiled sadly thinking back to his late friend. She would have been a wonderful mother to a little girl. Hell, Monty and Harper would be perfect for a little girl. 

“I think the only reason that they didn’t try for another one was the stupid laws back on the Ark. Dad used to tell me stories about how you had to keep Octavia hidden, and I think that they were scared that they would have to do something like that if they had another.” Jordan didn’t seem to be sad talking about his parents, but Bellamy could tell that the memory was bittersweet. 

“I get why they had the laws, but I can’t help but hate it” Jordan thinks out loud, as Bellamy shifts his weight off of his bad knee and winces. “All of that shit almost makes me want to keep her like this, y’know. She has a second chance, she doesn’t have to do all of the things she was forced to, she could just be a child this time.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. God knows she deserves it, but I couldn’t live with myself if I put her through that.” Jordan gave him a strange look at that, and while Bellamy ran a tired hand over his beard he sighed deeply. 

“You can’t tell Madi this, okay Jordan? But, Clarke has all of the memories of what she’s done. No child should have to live with that. It’s hard enough on all of us, and we’re adults. She has these night terrors, that’s why we were gone this morning- about her past. Xavier says that it is everything coming back to her as she sleeps. I can’t let her go through that.”

Jordan’s face falters slightly, and he nods in understanding as he turns to look at Clarke head on, a sad look in his eyes. “It would be like Charlotte all over again. Mom always said that you felt responsible.”

The two men sat in silence after that, an unspoken understanding between the two hanging thickly in the air. Both of them had fallen deep into their thoughts and were startled be the clearing of a throat behind them. Marius stood not two feet away, hoping to gain Bellamy’s attention subtly. 

“Bellamy, could I borrow you for a minute?” Bellamy glanced across the yard to Clarke and he looked as if he was battling himself, not wanting to let Clarke out of his sight for even one second, but knowing that what Marius had to say was probably very important. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on them” Jordan smiled at Bellamy before standing up and walking over to the two young girls and joining in on their play. Taking some relief in that fact, Bellamy stood and followed Marius into the old shed. 

“When they get to the palace, I have a place for you to stay to keep you all safe. It’s an old cabin about a mile from here. The Primes don’t know about it, hell most of us don’t know about it either, and the only way to get through it is through underground tunnels. Most of the cabin is underground, so if anyone stumbles upon it, it will just look like an old abandoned cabin that’s falling apart. You will be safe.”

Bellamy nodded, deep in thought. The last thing that Bellamy wanted was Madi, Jordan, or Clarke to be put in danger, but he also felt that it wasn’t right for him to be hiding away while others were risking their lives going against the Primes. 

“She needs you. You’re not running away from the fight. You being here, it is why this is going to work.” Marius clapped a firm hand on Bellamy’s shoulder, before turning to a small table in the middle of the room and grabbing a series of papers, which he thrust into Bellamy’s hands. 

“These are how you get to the cabin. I don’t want them falling into the wrong hands once I bring you guys there, so I figured that they would be safest with you.” Bellamy nodded in thanks, as he tucked the papers into the pocket on the inside of his jacket. He was about to verbally thank him, when Jordan burst through the door, out of breath and frantic. 

“It’s Clarke. She’s gone!” 

Immediately, Bellamy dashed out the door and found an equally frantic Madi running around the playground and calling for Clarke. 

Bellamy’s heart began beating erratically, and his vision blurred with tears. He had lost her. Again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the cliffhanger...


	5. Sometime Strength Comes from Letting Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It took a minute for Marius to respond, humming as he thought. “Yeah, I think that is a good idea actually. I want to check and see how she is doing after the drive removal anyway. She is probably just scared from the near fall, but if it makes you feel better, I can make sure she doesn’t have any injuries.”
> 
> Bellamy was happy that Marius was willing to look Clarke over, but the idea that there might be some problems after the drive removal struck him with a new fear. He knew about the nightmares, but the tone that Marius had made him expect that there was something else that he hadn’t mentioned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't want to make you wait too long for an update after leaving the last chapter off on a cliffhanger, so here you go.

“I only took my eyes off of them for a second, Bellamy! I swear!” Jordan panted beside him, continuing to look around for a glimpse of blonde hair. 

“Clarke said that she wanted to play a game, and asked me to turn around. So, so, wh-when I turned back around she was gone. Bellamy, I’m so sorry!” Madi sobbed, collapsing into his chest as the tears overcame her. “What if someone took her?” It was clear that Madi felt not only responsible for letting Clarke out of her sight, but felt as if she had lost her again and feared that she may never get her back.

“It’s gonna be okay, Madi. I will find her, I promise.” Bellamy soothed briefly, knowing that if someone had taken her, every second counted. “I need you and Jordan to go with Marius, right now, okay. If Clarke comes back here, she’ll need you to be here for her. I am going to go look for her.”

With that, Bellamy gently pushed Madi towards Jordan and Marius and took off to the perimeter of the playground. He glanced back, just to ensure that Madi was out of earshot before he began calling out her name. 

No matter how quickly he jogged around the area, he felt as if he was not doing enough, his heart was beating uncontrollably and with each minute a rancid taste of bile began to crawl up his throat. He was starting to panic, and he knew that as soon as he did he would be useless in finding Clarke. 

He had searched the entire play area and found nothing and he began feeling even more hopeless. He would not lose her again. He couldn’t. 

“Clarke!” he all but screamed as he ran towards the forest that lined the play area, hoping that she had just wandered into the forest not thinking that she would be in any danger. He continued on for what felt like eons; his voice hurt and his knee was killing him. It was all too familiar, running through a forest desperate to find her while he was injured. Only last time, he was forced to stop before he could get to her. He wouldn’t do that this time. 

“Bell’my?” came a whisper above him, confused and playful. He had never thought to look up into the trees to find her. A few feet up, Bellamy spotted tiny feet kicking back and forth over a branch, and soon a small face peeked over the edge of it. 

Suddenly, Bellamy’s chest seemed to release and he could breathe again. He had found her, and she was safe. Now he just had to figure out why the hell Clarke was in a tree, and how to get her down. 

“Clarke, can you come down here now? You really scared Madi, and I bet she would feel a lot better if you came down.” Bellamy said as he raised his arms above him, to help her down and prevent her from falling. 

“I can’t Bell’ my!” Clarke whined. “ Madi hasn’t found me yet. We’re playing hide and seek. SHE has to come to find me.”

Chuckling Bellamy shook his head. Of course, Clarke only thought that they were playing a game and didn’t think that they would think she was in danger. 

“Come up here and hide with me!” Clarke squealed suddenly as if the idea had just popped into her head and would make the game all that more fun. 

Shaking his head fondly, he couldn’t help the smile creeping onto his face and let out a soft chuckle. “Okay, Clarke. Just let me look around to make sure Madi won’t see me climbing up. I’ll be right back.”

With that, Bellamy jogged a short distance away and broke out the small radio he had strapped to his waist. “Madi? Jordan? Can you hear me? It’s Bellamy. I found Clarke.”

After a minute of silence, his radio came to life in a blur of static “Bellamy! Where is she?” came Madi’s voice clearly relieved and anxious to see her. 

“She’s out in the forest, up a tree. She thinks the two of you are playing hide and seek and won’t come down until you come to find her.” 

Bellamy explained quickly how to get to where they were and made his way back to the tree and Clarke. His leg was killing him, but he made his way up the trunk of the tree with a few grunts. Leaning back against the trunk, Bellamy pulled Clarke against his chest and wrapped his arms around her torso. He wasn’t sure how she had managed not to fall out of the tree with all of her squirming already, and he would be damned if he couldn’t keep her from falling now. 

“We’re really high up” Clarke stated happily, “‘cause I thought that Madi wouldn’t see me if I was up so high. That was a good plan, wasn't it?” 

Bellamy nodded with a smile, ruffling her hair despite her giggles. “It was a really good plan, Clarke.” He hadn’t thought to look up to find her, and frankly, he was a lot more serious about it than Madi would have been had she actually known that they were playing hide and seek. 

It didn’t take long for him to spot Madi running through the forest with Jordan on her heels. Both of them still looked nervous and he could practically see the stress melting from their bodies once they spotted Clarke. 

“Clarke! We found you” Madi yelled, cupping her hands over her mouth and tilting her head back. “You can come back down now.”

Clarke giggled again and smiled, as she shimmied her body away from Bellamy and swung one of her legs over the edge of the branch that they were sitting on so that she was no longer straddling it. The action made Bellamy incredibly nervous, and it appeared that it made Jordan and Madi nervous too, because they quickly ran over and positioned themselves directly under the branch ready to catch her if she fell. 

Quickly, it became apparent that they may have to actually catch her because the branch began to creak and bend under the sudden movement. Bellamy felt frozen as if one movement would be too much and send Clarke tumbling to the ground. However, he also knew that he had to get off the branch to alleviate the stress from the limb. 

Slowly, Bellamy tucked one of his legs over the side of the branch, much like Clarke had, but never moved his eyes from her. He had managed to get his feet on the branch below the two of them without any incident and let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. 

Unfortunately, it seemed that he had released his breath too soon because as soon as he did, Clarke shifted just slightly and lost her balance. Without thinking, Bellamy lunged forward and caught her by her arm, barely managing to keep himself from falling out of the tree as well. 

Pulling her into his chest, Clarke sobbed as he climbed down the rest of the tree, the two of the quickly swarmed by Madi and Jordan. Madi immediately reached out to comfort the small girl, only for Clarke to cuddle further into Bellamy. 

Bellamy’s heart went out to Madi, and he immediately wanted to reassure her that Clarke was just scared and not rejecting her, but Madi’s face softened more and she gently brushed the hair out of Clarke’s eyes, seemingly unbothered by Clarke’s action. 

“Are you okay, Clarkey?” she asked unbelievably softly. Through her tears, Clarke locked eyes with Madi and nodded her head against Bellamy’s shoulder. 

Looking up to Bellamy Madi furrowed her brows together in concern, “I think she’s a little frazzled, we should head back now. ” Bellamy nodded, and the four headed back to the shed. On the way there, Bellamy grabbed the radio to tell Marius what had happened. 

“Hey, Marius. It’s Bellamy, and we found Clarke. She was hiding in a tree. We got her down, but she is a little shaken up. Do you think you could look her over?” 

It took a minute for Marius to respond, humming as he thought. “Yeah, I think that is a good idea actually. I want to check and see how she is doing after the drive removal anyway. She is probably just scared from the near fall, but if it makes you feel better, I can make sure she doesn’t have any injuries.”

Bellamy was happy that Marius was willing to look Clarke over, but the idea that there might be some problems after the drive removal struck him with a new fear. He knew about the nightmares, but the tone that Marius had made him expect that there was something else that he hadn’t mentioned. 

Marius had informed them that he would be waiting just outside of his clinic and would be ready to access for any injury that Clarke may have and true to his word, Marius was standing just outside his small clinic ready for them when they arrived. Immediately, he attempted to take Clarke from Bellamy, only for her to begin crying harder and burrow further into Bellamy. 

Nodding Marius instructed Bellamy to follow him into one of the back rooms so that he could check her over. It was clear that Clarke would not be letting go of Bellamy, and if they wanted to make sure she was okay it meant that he would have to hold her down while she was checked out. 

He sat huddled onto a small chair with Clarke on his lap, one of each of his hands holding onto one of hers while Marius tested the reflexes in her knees, listened to her heart, lungs, and looked in her ears. By this point, her sobs had turned into mere sniffles and she was not shaking nearly as hard as she had been. 

“Okay, well physically, she seems fine. Her reflexes are good, no fever, lungs, and heart sound good. I want to do a psych test and EEG to make sure everything is going right up there.” Marius said as he turned his back and began collecting a number of small instruments. 

Bellamy immediately stiffened and pulled Clarke a bit closer towards him, suddenly feeling unsure about Marius. “Don’t worry, you’ll be here the whole time, and I’ll explain everything I am doing before I do it. I know that this isn’t going to be easy for you, but it is the only way that I can make sure that her brain hasn’t been negatively affected.”  
Gently stroking Clarke’s hands with his thumbs he nodded and let out a deep sigh. “Okay.” With that Marius nodded once more and directed Bellamy to an operating chair that looked eerily like the one the Primes had strapped her to when they injected Josephine into her brain. 

“Okay, Clarke, I’m going to shine a light in front of your eyes. I need you to look over at the wall right there” Marius instructed softly, shining a small light to a spot on the wall. Clarke gave a small smile and nodded in understanding. 

Kneeling in front of the chair, Marius looked to Bellamy and began explaining that the light would be used to test her ability to process light, and it is often how they tested to see if a person had a concussion. Bellamy nodded in approval to allow Marius to continue. 

“Okay, you did great sweetie,” Marius said as he clicked the light off and slipped it into his pocket before scribbling a few notes down on a pad of paper. “So, her eyes responded just like they are supposed to, which is good.”

At that, Bellamy sighed happily and nodded for him to continue. Truth to be told, he was scared shitless, and he was afraid that if he used his voice it would betray him enough to scare Clarke. “Now, I need some help from you Bellamy. I need you to do a few simple tasks for me, and Clarke we’re going to play a fun game.”

Taking Bellamy’s look of apprehension and confusion, Marius continued. “I need you to do exactly what Bellamy does, okay Clarke?” he stated before turning his directions towards Bellamy again. “These tasks are going to test how her brain is signaling different parts of her body and if they are correctly receiving the messages. It’s usually easier for kids to do if they can follow someone they trust.” Marius explained and motioned for Bellamy to stand up. 

Soon Bellamy was standing on one foot, hopping up and down, touching one hand to his nose and then switching to the other with his eyes closed, and walking down a line with one foot in front of the other touching his nose with each of his hands one after another. He felt like a complete idiot and couldn’t understand how any of this could determine if Clarke’s brain was okay. 

However, Clarke seemed to be having fun copying the silly motions that Bellamy was doing and thought that it had turned into a game. She was a bit wobbly when it came to standing on one foot and was more focused on how high she could jump than keeping her balance during that test but completed the touching of her nose test with ease. 

Smiling, Marius told Bellamy that everything was looking good and there were no indications that there were lasting effects from having the drive removed, but that he still wanted to do a few more tests. 

Some of them are small and make Clarke laugh and smile, like when she has ten seconds to look at a series of pictures and then had to tell Marius what the images were, but there were also serious ones that made Bellamy nervous and bounce his leg up and down as he held Clarke on his lap. 

“Okay, we’ll just finish up with the EEG. You’ve probably seen this in the Primes weird lab dungeon.” Marius said as he pulled out an all too familiar helmet with small paddles attached at various angles, before slipping it onto Clarke’s head and tightening it down. 

“It will show electrical signals in her brain, and tell us once and for all if we should continue to be worried about the drive causing any damage.”

Shuffling somewhat awkwardly, Marius sighed deeply before meeting Bellamy’s eyes. “I need to make her hyperventilate. It’s not going to be pretty. As soon as we can get that read, I can give her something to calm her down and let her sleep, but we have to get the read.” 

“Okay. Let’s get this over with then.”

Half an hour later, Clarke was soundly asleep on Bellamy’s lap. Marius had given her a relaxing agent minutes prior after having the hyperventilation read, and now they just had to wait an hour and a half to get an accurate resting read. 

“Everything is looking really good so far, Bellamy. On the Glasgow scale- a scale to test brain activity basically” Marius clarifies at Bellamy’s confused look, “she isn’t even remotely indicating that something is wrong. I think everything worked perfectly.”

Bellamy nodded, and gently brushed the hair from Clarke’s eyes as she slept. “Thank you. For saving her.”

The next hour and a half passed mainly in silence, Marius occasionally jotting down notes and Clarke’s soft snores being the only thing to disrupt the silence. Once the EEG reading had completed, Marius took to gently removing each electrode paddle without waking Clarke and then showed Bellamy to where they would be staying until they needed to head to the cabin. 

When Bellamy walked in, Madi and Jordan bound up to him immediately, and he barely had time to hold a finger up to his lips to tell them to be quiet before they were fussing over Clarke in soft whispers. 

“She’s okay? Right?” Jordan asked his face mirror that of his mother so closely that it almost hurt Bellamy to look at him. 

“She’s okay. Everything is fine, Marius made sure of it. Just let me lay her down real fast and I will tell you both everything” Bellamy stated as he made his way over to one of the beds and gently tucked Clarke in. 

After making sure that she had been swaddled and had enough blankets, he leaned down and planted a soft kiss against her forehead before making his way back to Jordan and Madi. 

“He did a bunch of tests and everything is fine. As soon as we can get her back into the flare, she will be back to herself” Bellamy said with a smile as he clapped one of his hands on Madi’s shoulder. “Now, you should head off to bed too. It’s been a long day.” Madi nodded as a small yawn escaped her lips, and soon enough she was fast asleep in the bed next to Clarke’s. 

Jordan looked distressed and wrung his hands together guiltily, not daring to look anywhere but his feet. “I’m so sorry, Bellamy.” he sounded broken. 

“You have no reason to be sorry, Jordan. You’re human, and nothing happened, so just learn from this and don’t let it happen again.” Bellamy said as he sat down beside him. “The same thing would have happened if I had been there. You had no way of knowing that she would run off and hide like she was playing a game. You did the right thing coming to me.”

Jordan nodded, but the look of despair on his face didn’t seem to fade. “Why don’t you get some rest, and we can talk in the morning Jordan. There’s no use beating yourself up over the past. Your parents would want you to move on and forgive yourself.”

Jordan nodded, unconvinced, but headed to bed nonetheless. Bellamy followed suit not long after, the pain in his knee screaming at him with every step he made towards the bed before he collapsed down onto it and fell into a light slumber.


	6. The Man Beyond the Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke makes a new discovery, gets a little scared, and falls asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a hot minute guys, sorry about that! 
> 
> The surgery took a lot out of me and it has been a bit difficult to get back to this. 
> 
> to make up for the wait, here is an extra long chapter.

When Jordan woke up the next morning, Bellamy was already awake and sitting at the small table across from where all of the beds were. He had a cup in his hand, and despite the fact that he grimaced with every drink, he seemed to be enjoying the substance once it made its way down his throat. 

Making his way over to the table Jordan sat down across from Bellamy and murmured a soft good morning. 

Bellamy nodded silently, before pouring a cup of brown, steaming liquid for Jordan, and handing it to him. 

“Marius brought some this morning. It’s coffee. Tastes like shit, but feels great.” Bellamy said, a coy smile on his face, as he lifted his own cup to his lips again, before taking a long and slow sip. Jordan followed his example, only to choke and spew coffee all over the table between them. 

Bellamy let out a low and rumbling laugh before he made his way to start wiping up the mess. “You weren’t kidding, this tastes like ass.” The two men laugh and sit in comfortable silence for a few minutes, both relishing in the feeling of peace, knowing that it was only the calm before the storm. 

Glancing past Bellamy, Jordan’s eyes fell on to Clarke’s sleeping form and his smile quickly fell. Following his line of sight, Bellamy turned to determine what the young man was looking at and sighed when he figured it out. 

“Did your parents ever tell you about what happened after Mount Weather?”

Jordan furrowed his brow, and slowly nodded unsure as to why Bellamy was asking. “Yeah, after the Mountain fell, people started calling Clarke Wanheda and that led you guys to meeting the Commander, everyone was miserable and Jaha tried to get everyone to give up their minds and go to the City of Light. That’s how you guys figured out about Praimfaya, right?”

Nodding with a tight smile, Bellamy ran a hand through his hair and pushed it back off of his forehead. 

“After the mountain fell, Clarke became known as Wanheda, and people wanted to hunt her down because they thought if they could kill the Commander of Death that they would be able to control death itself. Clarke hated herself for what we had to do in the mountain and chose to leave our camp” Bellamy stated, his voice raw with emotion, and paused having become choked up at the memory. 

“And I let her. Even when I knew that it wasn’t safe for her to go out on her own, I let her walk away.”

“Bellamy…” Jordan said softly, clearly attempting to reassure Bellamy, only to be stopped when Bellamy held up on of his hands, indicating that he was not done. 

“No, no, you need to hear this Jordan. I let her walk away knowing that she wouldn’t be safe, and she forgave me. I was so angry at her, for leaving, and I forgave her too. What you did yesterday, was nothing compared to what we went through after Mount Weather.”

Reaching across the table, Bellamy clapped one hand over Jordan’s shoulder and continued, “We forgive each other in this family. Always. It doesn’t matter how badly we screwed up, how stupid we were- we forgive. You made a mistake, a small one, and it all worked out. If Clarke can forgive me for leaving her behind during Praimfaya, if we can forgive each other for Mount Weather, there is absolutely no question whether or not I have forgiven you for yesterday.”

A single tear made its way down Jordan's cheek and he nodded in understanding. At that point, Bellamy pulled the young man into his arms for a comforting hug, and it felt as if the weight of the world had been lifted off of Jordan’s chest. 

When the two men broke apart, Madi and Clarke had stirred from their sleep and joined the two men at the table. Somewhat shyly, Clarke tugged at the sleeve of Jordan's sleeve, eager to get his attention and yet slightly nervous. 

Turning his attention to the young girl, Jordan picked her up and set her on her lap happily. “What’s up, kiddo?”

“Your Mommy and Daddy, they told me to tell you that they love you SOOO MUCH and are very, very, very proud of you,” Clarke states with a big smile that would melt anyone’s heart. 

Confused, Jordan looked at her in attempts to figure out what she was saying. He was at a loss for words, completely stunned by Clarke’s sudden confession. 

“What?” Jordan’s voice was barely above a whisper and it sounded as if he was about to break any second. 

“Back before, when the mean lady was here,” Clarke pointed on finger at her chest, “and I was stuck up here,” using another finger to point to her head, “ Monty and Harper talked with me sometimes. They told me that when I got back, that I had to promise to tell you that.”

A smile broke out over Jordan’s features as tears began cascading down his face again, as he pulled Clarke into a tight hug and laid a soft kiss to the crown of her head. 

“Thank you, Clarke.”

As she pulled away, Clarke’s brows knitted together in concern when she saw the tears in her friend’s eyes. Reaching up, her small hand stroked across his cheek wiping away the tears. “I’m sorry, Jordan. Please don’t cry” Clarke all but whispered. 

Shaking his head, Jordan’s watery smile only grew as he promised Clarke that these were happy tears and he just missed his parents, but that it had made him very happy to hear their message. 

After one final hug, Clarke jumped down off of his lap and began playing on the floor with Madi, as they all ate and got ready to start the day. Bellamy had decided that it would be best to spend the day at the playground once again, seeing as Octavia, Diyoza, and Xavier were probably very close to breaching the shield. He wanted to give Clarke and Madi just one more day of being kids before they had to hold up in the remote cabin. 

The walk to the playground was short, and with Clarke tugging at Bellamy’s hand excitedly, it was no longer than ten minutes before Madi and Clarke were racing off to the small man-powered merry-go-round.

Letting out a soft chuckle at how happy the two young girls seemed, Bellamy followed shortly behind them and began spinning the merry-go-round. At first, he started off slowly, making sure that neither of them would get hurt, but soon got caught up in squeals of delight and chants asking to go faster, and once the girls got off of toy, they were so dizzy that they could hardly stand. 

For the next few hours the four of them played together; Jordan and Bellamy pushing the girls on the swings, the four chasing each other during a game of tag, and Jordan teaching them how to play with a soccer ball. 

Bellamy and Jordan were the first ones to need a break, deciding to sit on a bench a few feet away and catch their breath while Madi and Clarke continued to run around. It wasn’t long before Madi joined the two men on the bench and gulped down water from her water bottle before wiping the sweat on her forehead.   
“Is it just me, or does Clarke have a freakish amount of energy? I mean seriously, it doesn’t stop! I couldn’t have been that bad when I was her age” Madi joked as she leaned back on the bench, clearly worn out from keeping up with the four-year-old. 

“I don’t know, Madi, Clarke told me you were pretty wild when you were young. Always jumping out of trees, seeing how long you could hold your breath underwater…” Bellamy joked right back, nudging her shoulder with his hand limply. 

Rolling her eyes, Madi let out a sigh and glanced a short distance away to where a group of kids around her age were hanging out. Following her line of sight, Bellamy couldn’t help but think of Octavia and how she had just wanted to be around people her age and experience life. Nudging her again, to get her attention, Bellamy tossed his head on the groups direction and simply said: “go.”

Smiling widely, Madi jumped up and made her way over to the group, quickly clicking into the dynamic and laughing along with whatever they had been talking about. 

It felt good to see her like that as if she were a normal teenager hanging out with friends, and not a Commander of a large group of people desperate for her to lead them. She looked younger, happy, and carefree, and Bellamy couldn’t help but wonder if this is how Madi was for the 5 years she spent on Earth with no one but Clarke. 

He was only interrupted by these thoughts when a small body collided into his legs at a high speed. “Bellamy!” Clarke shrieked as she flung her body at him, “come see what I found!”

With that, he let the small girl lead him over to a small patch of grass where various weeds and flowers had sprouted. Squatting down, Clarke dropped Bellamy’s hand and delicately plucked one of the weeds from the ground and proudly held it up to his face. 

It took Bellamy a minute to recognize the plant, due to the fact that it was far larger and the plush pink fibers were so different from the ones he had seen on earth, but Clarke had picked a bloomed dandelion. 

Smiling, Clarke puckered her lips together and blew on the plant, watching as the pink seeds danced about in the wind. Her eyes sparkled in wonder, and Bellamy couldn’t help but smile. Sitting himself down on the ground and crossing his legs under himself, Bellamy pulled Clarke into his lap and picked up another dandelion. Softly plucking a few seeds from the flower, he twisted them between his fingers and brushed them over Clarke's cheeks to tickle her, before releasing them and watching as they were carried away on the gentle breeze that was blowing through the playground.

The two sat there together for the next hour, plucking seeds and watching as they danced away. It was well after 1 o’clock in the afternoon, and the rumble coming from Clarke’s stomach told him that it was time that they all stopped for lunch. 

After collecting Madi and Jordan, they made their way over to Marius’s quarters to stop in and invite him to join them for a meal, both as a thank you and to ensure that he would actually eat. If Marius was anything like Clarke was when she was worried or focused, he would forget to eat.

Once they arrived, Bellamy’s suspicions were proven, as Marius was hunched over his desk, furiously scribbling down notes, fiddling with a radio, and sighing. As soon as Clarke saw him, she broke away from the rest of the group and sprinted up to him. 

“Dr. Marius! Look what I found!” Clarke smiled as she thrust one of the dandelions at the man, proud of her new discovery, hoping that it would impress him like it had Bellamy. 

“Oh, wow! You found an Ignaspiritvota, Clarke. They are very pretty, aren’t they?” Marius smiled tiredly as he took the plant and pretended to examine it closely, before passing it back to her. 

“Egg-nose-pirate-ta?” Clarke asked, fumbling with the new and unfamiliar word. 

With a smile, Marius repeated the name slowly. “Ig-na-spirit-vote-ah. It means bringer of wishes in Latin. Back on Earth they were called dandelions, I think. When you blow on the seeds,” Marius blew gently to demonstrate, “ it is supposed to carry your wishes away and help them come true.”

Bellamy smiled as he watched Clarke’s face light up with a completely new appreciation for the plant she had found, and relished in the scene for a beat longer before inviting Marius to join them for lunch. 

So far, the day had been almost too perfect. It felt wrong to Bellamy, somehow, as if it was too good to be true. Octavia, Diyoza, and Xavier had to be to the shield by now and it felt wrong that they hadn’t called yet. His mind began drifting back to when they had interrupted Marius’ work and briefly he wondered if they had called and couldn’t get through. 

Seeming to sense Bellamy’s rising panic, Marius cleared his throat and began discussing what he had been working on. 

“When you were all kind enough to come to get me for lunch, I was working on figuring out the time flare. It traps radio waves and repeats them over and over. The oldest one we have found was from 2012. It’s how I can tell how close the time flares are. The radio messages get clearer and clearer. I keep all of the com radios on a different frequency so they don’t get crossed though. I should probably get back to it, so we can get this little miss back to herself” Marius said as he gently tickled Clarke’s stomach before standing and leaving. 

With one quick look back, he nodded to Bellamy and instructed him to keep his radio close because it could be any minute now, and it would be any minute now. 

The four had hardly made it back to their own quarters when Bellamy had received the call. Only it wasn’t the call he had expected. 

An unfamiliar voice crackled over the radio in a whispered tone. “Bellamy? This is Ryker, I am with Raven and your team now. Russel figured out that you took Josie. He is sending out a search party right now. You need to hide or get the hell off this moon before they find you.”

“Give me a minute” Bellamy barked quietly, motioning to Jordan to come to him. As inconspicuously as possible, Bellamy whispered to Jordan to distract Clarke and Madi. 

“Start talking. Now. You have two minutes.” Bellamy all but growled, knowing that Ryker was a Prime and therefore someone who could be dangerous to them. There was some shuffling and a different voice filled the static. Echo. 

“Belomi, he ste kom yumi nau” Echo stated in hushed whispers, hoping that by speaking trig it would show that she was not being forced onto the radio.   
“Ai yu don ething ona control hir, ba der are hunters coming gon frag op Yu guys. Kep in emo klir, en Oso na ai op Yu when dison laik Ogeda odon. Ai souda gyon au.” She had everything under control, but the hunters were on their way to kill them after Russel had figured out that Bellamy had taken Josephine. He had to keep them safe, and they would see each other after it was all over. 

As quickly as her voice had come, it was gone, and the radio was silenced with a deafening click. Bellamy made quick work of radioing Marius and explaining the situation as he haphazardly put together clothing for all of them and got ready to leave for the cabin. Walking over to Jordan and Madi, he whispered in hushed tones, to avoid scaring Clarke, about the new development and told them to do a final check for essential that they would need for their stay in the cabin. 

While they set off to do that, Bellamy kneeled down in front of Clarke who was playing on the floor completely unaware of the danger that lurked in the forest around them.   
“Hey, Clarke. We’re all going to play a game together, okay?” Bellamy said in a soft tone, hoping that if he made their escape fun, he would avoid scaring her. 

“I need you to be really quiet for me. Madi, Jordan, you and I are going to go on an adventure, but we have to be really quiet.” Bellamy explained slowly, and grabbed her hand and leading her to the back of their quarters, where he had told Jordan and Madi to meet them. 

Pulling out the map Marius had given him, he explained where they were going and how they were going to get there, occasionally throwing in words like games, adventure, and make-believe to sell the idea that there was nothing to worry about. 

The four had made there way into the tunnel system without incident, but it was dark even with their flashlights and Bellamy could tell that Clarke was starting to get scared. “Clarke, I need you to do me a favor,” Bellomy whispered to her, “remember when we were going to the cave when you picked all the flowers? Okay, while I need you to be our lookout again, do you think you can do that for me?” 

Although Clarke seemed a bit unsure, she nodded nervously and settled on his shoulders with ease. “I’m not afraid.”

After another ten minutes, they had reached the cabin and started to put their clothing in the dressers that were pushed up against one wall when the sounds of running feet, motorbikes, and guns could be heard overhead and around them. Clarke looked at Bellamy with sad and panicky eyes, her lip trembling as she clung to him. 

“I don’t like this game, I don’t want to play anymore Bellamy” Clarke sniffled.

“It’s going to be okay. We just have to be quiet for a little while longer, okay?” Bellamy said as he smoothed one hand over her hair and pressed a soft kiss onto the crown of her head. “Why don’t you go draw me a picture” offered as he handed her a small pencil and notebook that he kept in his backpack. Nervously, Clarke took it and sat laid down on the floor besides Madi, cuddling close to the girl as she began to draw. 

Madi looked scared, as well but was doing a wonderful job at hiding it for Clarke. She took to stroking her hair and humming softly in hopes of comforting her. Bellamy recognized the tune and realized that it was the same one that Clarke had hummed when she mercy killed Atom when they had first landed back on Earth as the 100. 

Pulling out the map that Marius had given him once more and looking to the margins, Bellamy sat down at the small desk and typed a short passcode into the computer. The monitor blinked to life with grainy security footage of the decoy top level of the cabin. Changing between a few cameras, Bellamy was able to see every inch of the decoy and the area surrounding the cabin outside. 

He could see a few men walking around in the woods, guns at the ready, but they hadn’t come close to the cabin yet, and it seemed as if they were pulling back. Bellamy hoped that that would be the case, but knew better than to believe it. They were setting a trap.

The next half an hour passed in complete silence, no once coming into view of any of the cameras, and no sound being picked up. Clarke and Madi seemed to have relaxed significantly and Jordan sighed in exhaustion, seeming to believe that they were finally safe. 

Just when they thought it had passed, a loud crash happened above them as one of Russel’s men crashed through the door of the decoy top floor of the cabin. Amazingly, Clarke had stayed silent and only curled further into Madi. Bellamy let out a silent breath, afraid that Clarke would have been startled enough to scream and alert the soldiers above them that they were there. 

After ten minutes, the door closing and the men retreating could be heard. Bellamy waited until he was certain that there was no one left before he dared to speak.

They had waited through the trap, and now they could fly under the radar undetected until the war was over. Bellamy let out a sigh and walked over to check on Clarke and Madi. Madi was clearly shaken but seemed to be fine overall. Clarke, on the other hand, had dried tracks of tears running down the length of her cheeks and her eyes were puffy and red. 

Kneeling down, Bellamy placed on hand gently on her shoulder ready to pull the young girl into a comforting embrace. Clarke however, just looked down at the ground to avoid eye contact and pinched and twisted her bottom lip between two of her fingers nervously. 

“I had an accident” Clarke whispered, mumbling around her fingers. 

“ Hey, hey, look at me Clarke,” Bellamy instructed, using one hand to pull her fingers away from her mouth and raising her chin so that she was looking at him, “what did you say?”

Tears sprang to her eyes again and her lips trembled, as she softly repeated that she had had an accident. Glancing down, Bellamy noticed that there was a small wet spot on Clarke’s pants, and it clicked for him what had happened. 

Collecting her in his arms, Bellamy brought her over to the bathroom and began drawing a bath. Looking through the cupboards, Bellamy found some bath soaps, shampoo, conditioner, and towels. Making a quick trip over to the bags that they had packed earlier, Bellamy picked out a soft nightgown and tights for Clarke to put on after her bath and set them on the counter. After testing the temperature and adding bubbles to the water, he turned the water off and helped Clarke strip out of her soiled clothes and gently set her in the warm water. 

Naturally, the warm water soothed her and it was clear to tell that she was significantly more relaxed than she had been all afternoon, but her eyes remained downcasted and a small frown played on her features. 

“Y’ know, it is practically impossible to be upset when you are surrounded by so many bubbles, Clarke?” Bellamy said with a soft smirk, as he reached into the mess of bubbles that sat atop the water. Suddenly, he brought his hands together and sent the bubbles that he had just collected floating through the air. It turns out that he had been right, because Clarke was unable to keep the giggle from escaping her lips and squealing with joy when she repeated his actions. 

The two of them stayed like that for some time, Bellamy wanting to help soothe any fear that still remained in her mind and Clarke enjoying the grunts and chuckles coming from him every time she was able to surprise him with a splash or attack of bubbles. Sighing contentedly he grabbed a small washcloth and lathered a gentle soap onto it and began to gently scrub the dirt and grim of childhood off of her face and body. 

As Bellamy moved on to gently massaging shampoo onto Clarke’s hair he paid special attention to the area where the drive had been inserted and removed, ensuring that his fingers were extra gentle and avoiding getting any soap on it in fear that it would become irritated. 

After pouring a few cups of water over her head and washing all of the soap and conditioner from her hair, he grabbed a large fluffy towel and wrapped her up in it before grabbing the clothes that he had picked out earlier. As he pulled the plug from the tub and let the water drain, he helped Clarke change into the nightgown before bringing her back out to the small living space where Jordan and Madi were sitting and watching television together. 

Sitting down on the couch, Bellamy set Clarke on his knees and began untangling her hair with a small comb as he half paid attention to whatever it was that the two kids were watching on. Clarke’s head kept drooping and jerking back up again and her eyes fluttered open and closed as Bellamy finished brushing her hair. 

Glancing slightly to the side, Madi seemed to notice and reached her arms out to lift Clarke onto her own lap. Snuggling into the older girl’s side, Clarke looked up at her through hooded lashes and heavy eyes and smiled softly as a yawn escaped her mouth. 

“How about a story, Clarke? Would you like that?” Madi asked, a knowing look in her eyes and a playful smile as she saw the excited nods coming from the small girl at her side.

Back in the Valley, Madi had fallen asleep to stories of Clarke’s friends every night, and it was something that was special to both her and Clarke. For Madi, it had always been something to calm her down before bed, make her feel less alone, and have hope that one day she would meet the heroes from all of the stories. For Clarke, they had been the way that she remembered everyone she loved, who she was, and why she had to keep going. She knew that she may never see them again, but she had to hold on just encase so that they wouldn’t come back to a world all alone. 

“A long time ago, a brave princess fell from the stars. Everything was new and scary for the brave princess, but she was excited to see all of the things she had never seen before. The brave princess was not alone, and she had to look after all of her friends and keep them safe, but this was a very big job and the brave princess had to fight many scary monsters and bad people. 

After a while, the brave princess and her friends thought that they might have found peace and that they could be happy without having to fight anymore, but the Earth got sick. Some people were lucky and found a secret home far under the Earth where they could wait for the Earth to get well again, but the home was only so big and some people couldn’t stay there. 

As the Earth got sicker, the brave princess and her friends realized that they would have to leave the Earth and return to the stars so that they could wait for the Earth to get better. However, when they tried to go to the stars, something went wrong and the brave princess knew that she would have to leave her friends and go to fix it. 

Running as quickly as she could, she was able to fix the problem and saved her friends, but the Earth was so sick that they were forced to leave without her. The brave princess was all alone and scared. 

But the brave princess never gave up, and she wandered the sick Earth alone for a year until she found a safe place to call home. There were berries, and fish, and so many beautiful plants that the princess had never seen. One day, though, the princess stumbled upon a scared little animal that was all alone in the valley. The animal was small and scared and missed her mommy and when the brave princess tried to help her, the little animal didn’t understand and attacked the brave princess. 

But the brave princess was kind and loving, and slowly over time, her patients and love turned the little animal into a little girl who loved and adored the brave princess with all of her heart. From then on, it was the two of them against the world. 

Every night the brave princess would lay the little girl down, stroke her hair sweetly, and tuck her into bed. She made her feel safe and loved despite the uncertainty of the world around them. As the sun danced away and welcomed the moon, the brave princess would always tell the little girl stories of the heroes who lived far below and above them and what it was like to live among the stars. 

The little girl’s favorite stories were the ones of the girl under the floor who saved all of humanity and those of the man who lived beyond the moon. For a long time, the little girl didn’t believe the princess, thinking it was silly that there were people who lived among the stars and watched over them or people in the ground who would one day meet them with smiles and love, but she adored the characters in the stories nonetheless. 

Sometimes the little girl would pretend to fall asleep after the story had ended, and she would just watch the princess. The princess would sit and stare at the stars sadly, as she talked into a little box as if it were the man who lived beyond the moon. Secretly, these were the little girl's favorite stories. 

The brave princess would tell him about their day, how they had found berries that were pretty but had little taste, or how the little girl had fallen out of a tree and scared her. All of these stories started with a number. At first, the numbers were small. 368. 400. 411. But they got bigger and bigger each day. Most of the calls were happy, making jokes to the sky and keeping him a part of her life, but one day, 1825, the call was only filled with tears. 

The brave princess called to the man with such sadness that the little girl thought that he would have heard her heartbreaking all the way up past the moon. She told him that the earth was safe now and that they could all come home to her. She would be waiting, and she couldn’t wait to hug each of them and tell them how proud she was. She wanted them to meet the wild little girl who she had spent the last four years with and loved dearly. 

But like every day, the small box didn’t have a response, and the brave princess was left alone with her tears for over another year. By that time the little girl had grown, and was no longer so little, and didn’t need to hear the brave princess’ stories to be able to go to sleep. The stories stopped, but the calls did not, and every night the girl would pretend to be asleep so she could hear the princess talk with the man beyond the moon. 

Until one day, earlier in the morning, just after the sun had danced across the horizon of the sky, the brave princess saw a ship far off in the distance as she was talking to the man who lived beyond the moon, and the princess smiled in a way that the girl had never seen before. Cutting her story short, the princess muttered a soft ‘nevermind’ and told the box that she saw them coming back to her.

Only, it was not her friends coming home, instead, there was a group of new people who the princess had never met before. She was scared and told the girl that she would have to hide to stay safe, just like the girl from under the floor. 

After a while, the girl realized the princess was gone and that she would have to save her from the strange people. It was then that another ship landed, and the girl found the princess’ friends and the man who lived beyond the moon.

Excitedly, the girl took the man and told him that the brave princess had disappeared and he promised to save her.”

“He saved her, he always does.” Clarke interrupted tiredly, her eyes hardly able to stay open. Smiling, Madi glanced to Bellamy before beginning the story again. 

“You’re right, Clarke, he will always save her. But the strangers were still there and they had to figure out how to make peace and live happily together on the small piece of Earth that was healthy. However, not all of the strangers wanted that and soon the people from under the ground, the ones from the sky, and the strangers were at war.

Like all wars, there was a price to pay, and this time it made the Earth so sick, that no one could ever live on it again. So those who had banned together climbed on a ship and headed for the stars once more. So they decided that they would all wait for the Earth to get well again, and went into a special sleep. They hoped that one day, the Earth would get well again, but two very brave and kind people realized that this was not the case and they found everyone a beautiful new place to call home. 

Madi stopped her story then, noticing how hard Clarke was fighting to stay awake and hear the end of the tale. Noticing the stop a few seconds later, Clarke fought back a yawn and looked up to Madi expectantly. 

“What happened next?”

“You’ll have to wait and see, Clarke. The story isn’t over yet.”


End file.
